Green's official police complaint

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Freelance journalist Nigel Green has lodged an official complaint in his latest row with Northumbria Police over the release of crime information to the media.

Green contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission after Deputy Chief Constable David Warcup told him his concerns will no longer be investigated.

During his campaign, the Northumberland-based journalist claims he has collected a list of more than 150 crimes, including sex attacks and armed robberies, which were either not released to the media or were released late.

After writing a feature for Press Gazette in January, Green received a letter from Warcup telling him all the that details of crimes he cited had been held back for ‘operational reasons’and the force no longer had to ‘justify’such decisions.

Green has now complained to the IPCC, which has referred his complaint to Northumbria Police, offering to review the matter if he is not happy with the result.

Green said: ‘Police are failing to appeal for witnesses – which is surely a key factor in catching criminals.

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‘I’ve been a journalist for 23 years and I’ve spent much of that time covering crime stories. There have always been rare occasions when details of crimes were held back for genuine operational reasons and those reasons, when explained, usually made sense.

‘But the list of crimes I have collected is simply too long and varied to all fall into this category.”

Green added: ‘Last weekend, even though the press office was staffed, not one crime was released from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.

‘One incident they failed to put out was a fatal accident which happened shortly after midnight on Sunday. Nothing at all was given out until a day and a half later.”